Muggles and Magic
by Wolken
Summary: The muggle world has found out about magic and a war has started. Most muggles have been killed in the war but a few are still alive. A captured muggle now lives with the Weasleys. But he's severely traumatized by the war and magic. Arthur has to prove the Minstery that muggles aren't a threat to wizards. Will he succeed?
1. Chapter 1

This whole chain reaction had been set into action by the president of the United States of America. He had been reelected and in his victory speech, he had suddenly decided while looking at the public in front of him, that he no longer could keep it a secret. The man cleared his throat, took a sip of the water standing on the podium desk and told the truth. ''Magic exists!'' The crowd started cheering, thinking that it was some kind of metaphor for the miraculous victory on his opponent.

But the president didn't stop there. ''It's a lie! All of it!'' The noise quieted down, the people didn't understand this metaphor. What was the president trying to say? They started whispering with their neighbors. Two bodyguards of the president walked up on the stage, the president surely was exhausted by the campaigns and he needed to rest before he would declare more nonsense en public. But the man jerked his arm free of their grip, grabbed the microphone and continued talking. ''There are no real elections! It's all a trick! The Ministry of Magic chooses the new president. It doesn't matter if you vote or not, it's set-up!'' the whispers in the crowd got louder and a few people started to yell that the president has gone mad, mostly the supporters of his opponent.

His bodyguards practically dragged him off stage, but the president kept telling, or more like yelling, the truth. ''Wizards and witches exist! They can do magic and fly on broomsticks! There are no real governments! It's all a l…'' at that moment, someone jerked the microphone out of the presidents hand to stop him and he got led off stage.

The public on the other hand was convinced that the wrong man had been elected, such a madman couldn't lead the country! Whispering changed into rumors and into shouting. The opponent came on stage and asked the people to remain calm but the effort was futile. Supporters of either candidate started fighting. Some of them sure that the country was going to be destroyed by this madman, other convinced that the man just needed some rest. The fighting crowd was so busy with each other that they didn't noticed the dark night sky being filled with owls, flying into every possible direction.

In less than a half hour, the whole news was about the incident. Time on time, they showed the clip of the president rattling about magic and wizards and the clip with the fighting crowd. The police had great difficulties to regain order, even the mounted police didn't make much progress. Why did no one ever noticed this before? The president already had served for four years and never he had done anything like this. But in an interview with a former president, he too declared that the magical world was true. The chaos was complete.

Not even a few hours later, Europe was fully awake and one by one presidents, premiers, kings, queens and ministers declared that they all knew about this.

It wasn't just the muggle world where panic had stricken, also the magical world was in uproar. It has never been this busy and crowded at the Ministry of Magic. People race in and out of rooms, appear and disappear in the chimneys and flying letters, flying letters everywhere. You needed to keep your head down or they will get tangled in long hair or fly straight into your mouth or eye. But that wasn't the worst and neither was the crowded hallways. The Howlers were the worst. Every few feet you could hear another letter going on a complete rampage to the poor person who opened it. Everyone demanded answers and at the moment no one could give any. The magical society had been kept a secret since the Middle Ages and everyone knew what happened to someone who even had the slightest suspicion about being involved in magic.

Arthur Weasley paced through the crowded hallways, he needed to get to the conference room. He kept a file full of muggle newspapers and other documents under his left arm while he used his right to push people out of the way. He was a scientist, a researcher on muggles to be exact, promoted on his research about the function of a rubber duck. Arthur knew exactly what to do about this recent chaos.

In just a matter of seconds after he had entered the conference room, the meeting began. First with Fudge, who tried to get everyone quiet. In the end, he only succeeded by putting the tip of his wand to his throat and again asking for silence, his voice boomed through the room. ''The muggles have found out about our existence. What are we going to do about that?''

Before Arthur could even open his mouth to speak, a small and skinny witch started with her solution. ''We send Aurors to erase their memory!'' she screeched with a high pitched voice that could give you a headache. ''Impossible! There a millions and millions on people who know about this and even if we managed to erase everyone's memories it will still be written on paper. It's impossible to do something like this!'' a quite plump wizard replied.

''Order! Order!'' Fudge demanded from the people in the room but and Auror ignored that and got up from his chair. ''We have been hidden from the muggle world for hundreds of years and then that president destroys our cover. I say we must take hard measures to show that they better not mess with us. We must kill that president!''

That certainly caused more noise, wizards and witches either approving of the plan or not. ''We can't do that! They will only have a reason to hate and fear us!'' the fat wizard replied with his loud voice. ''So what? Let them fear us! Look what they have done to us before we went into hiding, they never liked us and they never will! We must strike back hard!'' another witch yelled back.

This was going the wrong way, completely the wrong way Arthur thought. With three long steps he was in the middle of the conference room, also pointed his wand to his throat the same way Fudge had done and started speaking. ''That's completely unnecessary! Muggles are no more harmful than an imp or a flobber worm. I have got documents that can proof that wizards and mug…'' at that moment Arthur was cut off by a woman.

''Harmless?! Harmless! You surely never opened a history book! They want to burn us, drown us, torture us! While a muggle is no match to an adult wizard or witch, they surely are dangerous to our children, pets and homes. What are you suggesting? That we must just trust on their harmlessness?'' she laughed a high and sarcastic laugh before the other members of the council agreed with her by nodding.

Arthur tried to continue. ''The moment muggles realize that we aren't a threat to them they won't attack us. We are much like muggles, we almo…'' the group of people was outrageous at the fact that Arthur dared compare them to muggles. ''How dare you! We are nothing like those muggles! We've got reason unlike their panicked actions'' the first witch screeched, her voice breaking in midsentence.

The rest of the meeting continued the same way, Arthur barely had the chance to show that muggles weren't dangerous and the other members of the council just continued to scare each other with horror stories and coming up with even more horrific solutions. The only luck was that Fudge didn't want to decide what to do right now. He interrupted the meeting to continue in a few days.

But there would have been a better solution if the decision had done that day. In the next few days, both the magical world and the muggle world, accusing the other world from all kinds of things. The muggle papers reported about the costs of the Ministry of Magic and that they paid taxes for that ministry, total nonsense of course the wizards and witches paid taxes themselves to pay for their own ministry but that wasn't something that the muggles wanted to hear. Their childhoods had been full of fairytales in which witches were the bad guys and tried to kill you. They were compared to wolves, always hungry for blood and power.

Daily there were reports about attacks on muggles by wizards, brutal murders and robberies. That too wasn't true, wizards didn't need anything of the muggle world that they couldn't get in their own. People boiled in kettles to mix potions, tough no one had direct proof of it. But it scared the muggle community and they started to fight back.

In the beginning, every cat that walked on the street was killed. Everyone knew because of the stories that cats were the pets of witches. Next were dogs that looked like wolves, husky's, malamutes, Saarlooswolfdogs. If wizards and witches existed, why not werewolves?

Next were people, no one was safe and everyone suspected. An old widow that lived on herself? A witch! A man who had a bit too much luck in his life? A wizard! A child that wanted to show a trick? A witch! People began accusing each other of witchcraft on the most absurd reasons, a neighbor saw another fly on the broomstick in the middle of the night or someone who survived getting hit by a car. All of them had to be wizards and witches!

The massive burnings from the Middle Ages were back, no trials only public lynching's. In the beginning, it had only been muggles who had been killed, the magical part of society had been smart enough to stay in the background. But one child accidently used magic in public, he fell from a tree and his fall was too slow and calm to be real.

The village had killed the boy on the spot. This had of course enraged his parents who went on a full rampage, destroying the whole village and burning it down to the last house. A few villagers had managed to escape and alarm the outside world.

The president had his military powers returned after a few days in a mental hospital because they had thought he had gone mad. The president declared war on everyone who had anything to do with magic. This would proof to be an even bloodier war than the war on terrorism.

That day Fudge demanded everyone of the council to come back. Arthur knew that he could only try to get Fudge to reason if he could proof that muggles weren't a treat. But the Daily Prophet had made that job near to impossible, reporting everything and over-coloring every incident, even the ones that were worse enough on their own.

Fudge's face had turned an angry red color. ''It's enough! No more! They have declared war on us and we will not let anymore of our people die!'' this statement was greeted by a cheering of the council. ''Every wizard and witch has the right and duty to fight back against those muggles!'' he spat out the last word like it was some kind of illness. ''Children from the age of 5 are from this moment allowed to use magic with a wand and their parents are allowed to teach them the basic of defense against those murderers. Children from school age are now to follow mandatory special muggle defense classes to teach them how to defend themselves. The laws about using magic in front of a muggle are from now on abolished until further notice.''

Arthur protested, it was just outright dangerous to let such young children use wands and magic, they didn't know their powers and could hurt everyone, including themselves, on accident. But his protest disappeared in the tumult around him.

''The use of the three Unforgivable Curses at muggles is permitted! We must stop them as soon as possible! All Aurors are to drive the muggles back by any means and methods'' Fudge declared, his chest pumped up, feeling obviously proud about himself.

''No!'' Arthur shouted. This was completely the wrong solution, it would end in a bloody war with only losers and no victors. It would become a complete massacre! The muggles would fight back with every weapons they could find until the bitter end.


	2. Chapter 2

Four months later

It was still dark outside but Arthur was already sitting at the kitchen tables, going through newspapers. Old muggle newspapers because it had been weeks ago since the last ones were printed. There wasn't a company open, everything had shut down even the governments of the muggles. Cities abandoned, whole neighborhoods empty. The remaining muggles were smart enough to stay hidden in forests in the middle of nowhere. But still every day more and more of them were found and executed on the spot. Just a few of them weren't killed immediately. But their fate was worse than the ones that were murdered instantly.

Hogwarts had changed since Arthur had lived and learned there. The last headmaster had retired and the new one certainly had never liked muggles in the beginning. The subject Muggle studies had been deserted a long time ago but suddenly it had revived because of the recent troubles with the muggles. But not in the way that it had always been. It wasn't a subject about how muggles lived but more how to take care of muggles that stood in your way and how to find them.

Arthur wasn't the only parent who got his children off school, many others did the same even though it could result in a trial before the court for sympathizing with the enemy, the muggles. Arthur didn't know what happened to muggles that were held captive on Hogwarts but it couldn't be too good. The Daily Prophet talked about educational purposes to teach the children how they should defend their selves but there wasn't talked about the specifics.

But if it was the same as what happened at the Ministry, Arthur pitied them. Any muggle that was proven to be involved in rebel actions or in the war were used by Aurors to test their skills on. To teach young Aurors what to do in case of a rebelling prisoner or a prisoner outbreak. Not that there was a real chance of an outbreak, it seemed that they just wanted revenge for the killed wizards and witches in the war.

Arthur's glaze moved from the paper to the corner of the table to a pile of papers. He had been thinking about this for a while now. The war was won by the magical society and there were barely any muggles left but he was still interested in them. Observing them in their own city and with their normal behavior was impossible even without the war. Arthur was getting to old for things like he had done when documenting about the function of a rubber duck.

For weeks and weeks he had magically tracked every rubber duck that he could find and hid in bushes close to the houses to follow every move of the muggles inside. It was obvious that the muggles were very attached to their rubber ducks because every time Arthur had found them with the yellow thing, they started screaming at him and throwing strange bottles at him through the window. Some even yelled that they were going to call the police, something similar to Aurors Arthur had heard.

No he had to find another way. Arthur reached over and grabbed the pile and a quill. The first few questions were easy, who he was, where he lived and how old he was. The next few were more difficult. Why did he think he could handle a muggle, where would he keep the muggle for they couldn't have escaped muggles running around the towns?

Arthur penned down that he had worked as an Auror for two years, not telling why he stopped. He also wrote that he had a lot of experience with muggles, having a job at the Ministry as a muggle expert for at least a decade. That was the answer for the first difficult question. The second one he needed more time but in the end he just wrote that the muggle would stay at his house, protective spells around the house to keep the muggle from escaping.

Arthur couldn't imagine the muggle wanting to escape. If the muggle was just as curious about magic as he was about them, he was sure they would just get along fine. The muggle might even be glad he was safe from the less friendly wizards and dangers.

About two hours later he was done filling in the papers, most of them completely useless questions according to him. Putting the papers in an envelope he walked towards the window to look for one of the family's owls. Pigwigeon was the only one there, staring at him with his enormous eyes.

Arthur suddenly wasn't so sure about sending the papers by owl, it wasn't that he didn't like Pigwigeon but it was just… That owl was something beyond stupid, it was always a miracle if he entered the house without breaking at least two things. Arthur finally decided to just take the papers with him to work so that he could immediately hand them to the man responsible.

''Arthur are you sure you would want to take on this kind of responsibility?'' the skinny wizard asked him, looking suspiciously at the envelope that Arthur had pushed into his hands. Arthur nodded slightly irritated, why couldn't the man just accept his request? He had barely heard of any others who's requests for a muggle got denied.

''A muggle even though captured is still dangerous Arthur. He can be dangerous to your kids'' the man continued. ''I don't know if you even got the right certificates to ke…'' Arthur took another messy pile of papers out of the bag and put it on the envelope in the man's hands. ''That's the Auror certificate of mine, that's my work about muggle behavior and that's my N.E.W.T certificate'' the last one had excellent grades for Muggle studies and for Defense against the Dark Arts.

But the skinny wizard again shook his head. Arthur got irritated, wanting to ask why his request was denied before it was even considered. But at that moment he heard footsteps closing in on them. Familiar footsteps. Before he had even turned around he already knew who it was, Malfoy. Lucius Malfoy to be exact. ''Are there any problems, Marius?''

Arthur thought about taking the papers with him and leaving, he didn't want to spend a minute longer in Lucius presence. But the man with the long blonde hair had already opened the envelope in Marius hands. Arthur opened his mouth to protest but Lucius was quicker. ''A request for a muggle?'' his eyebrows rose. A small smile appeared at the corners of his mouth, clearly amused by it.

''Yes, I was just about to tell him his request was denied'' Marius quickly said, turning to Arthur and glaring at him. Lucius was respected, or a better word for it 'feared', at the Minstry. Marius certainly didn't want to get in trouble with him.

''No, accept his request'' Lucius said while browsing through the pages, angering Arthur more and more. He then looked up from the papers, his smile becoming wider and looking at Arthur. ''Accept his request. I would love to see Arthur handle a muggle. You said that they were equal to us, right?'' His bright white teeth showed through his smile, grinning slightly. ''It isn't like the Weasley's could afford a house elf. So let them have a muggle, cheaper and more to their… standing''

Arthur was close to exploding by now, his face going as red as his hair, but he kept his mouth shut his lips forming a thin line. ''Don't worry Arthur, if he gets too difficult you just need to ask me to take care of it'' Malfoy grinned before pushing the papers back in Marius' hands and leaving, his cloak waving in the movement of his walking.

Arthur glared at him as he saw Lucius leaving the hallway. Marius sighed deeply and opened the door to his office behind him. ''Arthur, come in. You first need to work through a few more papers and documents.''

It was certainly a lot more than just a few more papers and documents. For the rest of the day Arthur was busy with filling in every question on the parchment. Questions about insurance if something happened to him, questions about if he wanted to change his will and a complete relinquish on any claims on the Ministry. Arthur had frowned and Marius had explained him bored that there weren't any specific muggle documents so they used the standard ones for dangerous animals like dragons.

In the evening Arthur was out again, his hand hurting of the many writing. The next task would prove to be even harder he thought when going back to his home. He had to tell his family and especially his wife about his decision to take a muggle into their home.

At the beginning of the evening meal, Arthur had to ask for their attention three times before they finally listened. It had been even worse when Bill and Percy still lived at home, then it was almost impossible to get their attention. ''I've decided something that's important for everyone of us here'' Arthur began, getting the attention of his sons and daughter. His wife stopped conducting the pans and cutlery to the table, the objects floating in midair.

''I've decided that we will take a muggle into our home'' Arthur said, feeling relieved now he had finally said it. After three or four seconds the flood of questions came. ''Why dad?'' was the first question of his daughter. ''Is he going to be a house elf?'' Ron's question sounded half a second later. ''Awesome!'' the twins said simultaneously, already clearly thinking of any experiments on them like they had tried before on the rest of their family.

But before Arthur could answer any of their questions, his wife had regained full consciousness. The pans and utensils fell on the floor. ''Arthur Weasley!'' her voice boomed through the dining room, silencing everyone. Arthur turned his head to her slowly, knowing that he had made a mistake by not informing her earlier or even asking her opinion about the matter. ''Kitchen, now!'' her voice was softer but a lot colder and icier.

''You didn't even ask me anything! You can't just take a muggle into this house without even informing me!'' Molly shouted at him after slamming the door behind them. Not that it mattered much, she yelled that loud that it could even be heard outside of the house. ''But honey, otherwise the muggle will end up in Azka…'' before he was interrupted. ''I don't care where the muggle will end up! Not in my house!''

Molly had respected her man's obsession about muggles but that went as far as the doorstep. No muggles in her home, especially not after the war. Why should she allow an enemy to enter her house? It was just too dangerous! ''You will go right back to the Ministry that you have changed your mind about it! No muggle here!''

Arthur bit on his tongue. ''I can't! Lucius Malfoy knows about it'' That was enough to silence Molly for a moment. The Weasleys have been made fun of by the Malfoys for as long as the families existed. She didn't want to lose face against them. Molly didn't reply but turned around and marched back into the dining room, sitting down in her chair and putting food on her plate.

Her children stared at her, curious about the outcome. Would there be a muggle in their home or not? Their father soon too returned to the dining room, starting to eat. Molly looked up for a moment. ''Eat your vegetables Ron!'' she said before resuming her own dinner.

The rest of the meal was in silence, all in their own thoughts about it. It was clear that Molly didn't want to hear any more questions about it, or anything else for that matter.


	3. Chapter 3

He was surprised. Surprised that he was still alive and breathing. Tristan had made the mistake of attacking a scholar at Hogwarts. It hadn't been a crucio that had driven him over the edge an neither had it been a sectum sempra. Just a simple levitating spell. Muggles were allowed to walk in the gardens in the middle of the school under the supervision of experienced teachers. It was a rule of the Ministry, it would keep them sane and healthy. As sane and healthy as the muggles could be held while they were being used as guinea pigs by the students.

A few of the students were careful when they had to practice spells but it could still go horribly wrong. And most of the students, especially the ones with the green and silver ties, were just plain cruel. The ones with the blue and silver where the ones where you had the least risk of getting turned into something like a rat or a frog. But today it had neither been a green nor a blue who had pushed him over the edge. Three reds had corned him in the yard, pointing their wands at him. His fingers curled up into his hand palms, knowing that it wouldn't help much, they didn't even need to come close to him, but he refused to just stand there and do nothing.

The three reds moved closer, forming half a circle. The one on the right stepped forward while waving the wand and uttering a curse. ''Wingardium Leviosa!'' the next moment, Tristan was above the ground, his stomach turning in panic and his limbs flailed, hoping to regain the solid ground beneath him. He was getting a bit sick as he was thrown up in the air, falling until he almost made contact with the ground before going up again.

Then suddenly, the spell stopped and Tistan crashed down into the ground hard, nose first. He could already feel trickles of blood dripping on the grass. He didn't move, hoping that they had had enough and would leave. But it seemed that today he wasn't in any luck. The leader of the group walked towards him, crouching down and poking him, like children did when finding a dead bird, not sure if it's dead or just playing dead.

With an angry growl, Tristan turned and slammed his fist into the jaw of the wizard. The other was knocked down on the ground and Tristan was soon near him, landing punches everywhere he could. He didn't notice how it had became quiet around them. The wand had broken in the fall and for once, the power of muggle and wizard were equal. And soon Tristan was on the winning hand of the fight. That was until he felt a burning pain between his shoulder blades, knocking him away from the wizard.

The pain was familiar. It either meant that you were a test subject for the class Defense against the Dark Arts or that you really pissed off some people. The spell wasn't allowed for students to use outside of the classroom and they barely did use it outside because of the punishment if someone found out.

He heard someone screaming, his vision got blurry of the pain. His body spasmed and after what seemed like an eternity, the pain stopped. Tristan was too tired to move so he just stayed down on the ground. A rough hand hauled him back on his feet and dragged him away through the hallways. At that moment Tristan passed out.

He woke up in one of the cells in the dungeons. Tristan realized that he had been the one screaming. He was sure that he was going to be killed. The other people, or muggles as the wizards called them, only knew it as the green light and it was said that it could kill you instantly.

The ones that got permanently injured or went mad were taken away and they never returned. This probably would become his fate too. So when a group of wizards entered the dungeons and stood before his cell, Tristan was ready for them. He wouldn't go down without a fight. But they didn't open the cell door, they just stood there.

A man with long blond hair nodded after a while. ''He would be perfect for those Weasley's'' That man left and a other fired a spell at Tristan, making him lose consciousness again.

The next time that Tristan woke up, he noticed the strange ceiling above him. It was made out of wood. But Hogwarts ceilings were always made out of solid stone, it was a castle so it wasn't really surprising. The change from grey stones to brown wood was a moment of confusion.

The next thing were the blankets on top of him and the bed beneath him. Tristan blinked a few times, trying to figure out where he was exactly. Was he dead and in heaven? Possibly. But why was heaven made out of wood and brownish blankets?

Before he could figure out if he was dead or alive and where he was, a ugly monster with enormous eyes and ears appeared above him, sitting on his chest, just two inches away from his face. Tristan screamed the lungs out of his body and the creature above him did exactly the same thing, scrambling away from the bed. Tristan shot up, grabbing the blanket and keeping the fabric close to his body, like some kind of shield.

The monster was smaller than he had originally thought, wearing dirty cloths and standing a few feet away from him. Tristan just stared back at him, trying to figure out what it was. A loud bang and an even more ugly creature appeared, seemingly of the same kind as the first one. ''Filthy muggle'' the second one muttered while glaring daggers at Tristan.

Tristan was too shocked at his new surroundings to even notice the creature's insult. He wasn't dead and he wasn't at Hogwarts anymore. But where was he then? Still somewhere at a magical house because of those strange creatures.

At the conclusion that he was still at a house of a wizard or with, he jumped up, throwing the blankets off and pacing towards the window. The two creatures flinched at the sudden movement but they recovered quickly. ''Sit back down'' the grumpy one growled. Tristan ignored him and opened the old window, crouching in the windowsill, looking down. The ugliest of the two disappeared with a even loud bang as he had entered the room.

The creature that had almost given him a heart attack started squeaking. ''No, don't do that!'' Tristan stared down from the window. It was really high, if he was lucky enough he wouldn't break both of his legs if he jumped. But a sprained ankle seemed impossible to avoid. But at least he would be outside of the house. The moment that he decided to actually jumped, the door of the room was slammed open.  
It had gone really quickly from that evening at the dinner table. Molly had in the end allowed Arthur to take a muggle into the house, mostly because she didn't want to lose face in front of the Malfoys. It wasn't really hard to convince the kids, though Arthur had great troubles in trying to convince the twins not to experiment on the muggle.

Not even two weeks later, Arthur was called at Marius office. Most of the muggles weren't suitable because they would continue trying to murder any wizard around them or because they had too valuable information about where the rebels were hiding.

But they had found one at Hogwarts. Arthur hesitated in the beginning, a muggle who already had bad experiences with wizards wasn't the most ideal start but after the war there wasn't a single muggle left who didn't hate wizards. Or so Marius brought as an argument against Arthurs objection. That was true and the only other option was to wait for an additional six months.

A few Aurors would pick the muggle up at Hogwarts and bring him to Arthurs home. The whole day the family had been busy with preparing. Even a old friend of Arthur had showed up, Sirius Blacks. Well, old friend? More like a friend of a friend and send by James Potter. Sirius was experienced in dealing with the edges of the magical world, especially the dangerous ones.

Sirius had two house elves with him, Kreacher and Dobby. The worst thing the muggle could see when waking up was to see a wizard so they could better let house elves keep an eye on him and to warn them when he woke up. Muggles were always completely sedated just in case they would try to run.

Molly had made mince pies and fudge, hoping to bribe the muggle. Though Arthur didn't know for what, either Molly was scared that the muggle would destroy the house or because she wanted to be liked by their newest housemate.

While talking with Sirius about muggles and how to take care of them, it became clear that Sirius had more experience in dealing with hippogriffs and dragons. He too seemed to think that muggles were a dangerous type of animal, like most of the wizards. Like muggles were like Bowtruckles, harmless when they are young but without the right protection they could kill you when old enough.

With a loud bang Kreacher returned after being send upstairs by Sirius to check on Dobby and the muggle. ''The muggle is awake and at the moment he's trying to jump out of the window'' Kreacher had never made it a secret that he didn't like muggles, so it was just by the nature of house elves that he hadn't encourage the muggle yet to jump out of the window instead of informing them about it.

Sirius jumped up, knocking over his chair and the can of Butterbeer before running up the stairs, quickly followed by Arthur. Sirius slammed open the door, was by the muggle in an instant and dragged him back inside. The muggle indeed had been on the edge of jumping out of the window, a jump he wouldn't have survived.

The muggle fought back against Sirius, trying to get out from his grip, scratching, biting, punching and kicking. Arthur stood in the doorframe, frozen. Sirius fought back, used to taking care of dangerous animals. A muggle was no match to him. In no time Sirius had him on the ground on his stomach, his arms twisted on his back.

Arthur could hear them both panting, neither wanting to give up. Sirius held both of the muggles hands in one hand and wiped some sweat of his forehead. It was then when Arthur noticed that the muggle was still young, around the age of Fred and George. Probably the only muggle that they could give without risking to lose any information.

''Arthur, the window'' Sirius said after trying a few times to get Arthurs attention. Arthur finally regained his posture, waved with his wand to lock all of the windows to prevent something like this happening again. He was actually quite shocked that the muggle would risk death just to get out.

''Okey, listen very carefully, I'm going to release you and then you are going to stand up very slowly. Don't try any funny things'' Sirius warned the muggle before releasing him and taking a few steps back, having his wand in handsreach.

The muggle got up, glaring at both Sirius and Arthur. ''Well, you surely got yourself quite the project'' Sirius grinned at Arthur. ''Couldn't you just go for a cat or another owl?'' Arthur ignored him, put his wand away. ''What's your name?'' he asked the muggle. Till so far he hadn't got any papers about him, he barely knew anything just that he had spend two months at Hogwarts after being captured.

When the muggle didn't reply and just glared at him, Arthur said his own name first. ''You won't have to go back to Hogwarts anymore'' he insured him. Worse and worse rumors about the treatment of muggles at Hogwarts had gone round. That they were tortured and that the students practiced on them to learn their spells. And Arthur knew first hand that an inexperienced witch or wizard could do great harm when they didn't master a spell yet.

''Tristan'' the muggle replied after waiting a while. ''My name is Tristan''


	4. Chapter 4

Well, that surely wasn't a success. Other than his name, the muggle hadn't said much. Sirius had left the house with the house elves not long after his first encounter with the muggle. He had wished Arthur a lot of luck and was willing to offer his expertise with dangerous magical creatures if needed.

The windows were still locked with a spell, preventing him to try to jump out of the window. Something had happened that had driven him so far that he would make him dare to make a death leap from the second floor. And even though Arthur didn't want to believe those rumors about Hogwarts, he slowly was beginning to release that they could be true.

He occasionally checked if the muggle was still in the room. After their brief encounter, Arthur had left him alone. The teen had gone to sleep almost immediately after that but when Arthur accidently made too much noise when walking through the hallway, Tristan had awoken his whole body tensing up.

This was not what Arthur had been expecting. Sure, a traumatized muggle because of the war and he did believe that he wouldn't have been treated too nice in Azkaban and at Hogwarts. But it seemed that this time Arthur had bargained for too much than he could handle.

It was clear that Tristan was hungry but he didn't dare to touch the mince pies and fudge made by Molly and the pumpkin juice in a goblet on the nightstand. It actually had left Molly quite insulted, she had disappeared into the kitchen and she hadn't come out for at least a hour or two.

Judging by the smells coming from the kitchen, she was still determined to proof the muggle otherwise, trying recipes from her great-great-grandmother. Arthur doubted that it was because Tristan didn't like the food, but he didn't want to be the one to break the truth to Molly.

If he had to explain his thoughts about the cause why Tristan wasn't eating, Molly would probably try to convince Arthur that it was just too much than the family could take and that he had to give the muggle to the Ministry or send him back to Azkaban, as he was send away from Hogwarts for good. It was already difficult to manage such a large household, it had cost Arthur a lot of reasoning to convince Molly and the only reason why she finally said yes was because of the Malfoys.

Arthur heard noise upstairs. He sighed deeply, put the muggle newspaper down which was read over maybe for a dozen times, the ink of the letters starting to fade. Fred and George didn't get the point of leaving the muggle alone, they were constantly trying to get into the room. Ginny hadn't even paid attention and didn't bother to find out who the new one was in their household. Ron was too busy with catching up with schoolwork, he was terribly behind since Arthur had taken them off school. But sending them back was worse so after a long and boring sermon about how important schoolwork was, Arthur had send him up to learn the spells in those books.

But before Arthur was by the staircase, the noise was gone. Maybe he had just imagined it? He turned around after glancing at the top of the stairs for a moment. Then he walked back, going to the kitchen.

Molly's face was red with effort, directing every spoon and ingredient to the correct pan or bowl. Arthur had seen her only like this once before, just before the wedding of their son Bill. She had had to cook for an enormous group of people and had been busy for at least three days straight with making lists, finding the ingredients, cooking it and making sure no one ate before the wedding and that nothing burned.

Tristans eyes flew open the moment he heard some sound at the door. He saw the lock in the door moving slightly as someone was fumbling with it at the other side of the door. Every hour someone tried to get into this room, sometimes more than just once an hour and every single time, the persons was chased away by the man who had prevented him to jump out of the window. Or more like, the person who had stood frozen in the door opening when he saw Tristan in the window frame. The other man with the dark long hair had practically dragged him away, but Tristan hadn't heard his voice anymore.

Though they had tried at least ten times to get in, every attempt of them was stopped in time. But it still made Tristan heart stop every single time he heard noises at the door. He could only hope that they were chased away by the man again.

Even when taking these attempts of breaking in into account, this was the best sleep Tristan had had in a long time. A bed, blankets, a warm room. And best of all, alone. Since the war had broken out, he had had barely a moment alone. Always people around him, panicking, crying, screaming.

He shortly glanced at the food standing on the nightstand. He couldn't believe it, it seemed too good to be true. There had to be some kind of trick as these wizards and witches always had hidden somewhere. There could either be poison or some kind of potion in both the food and the drink. And Tristan wasn't going to take the chance.

The fumbling at the door took longer than previous times, Tristan was starting to worry, where was the man? Then a short click made him aware of the fact that the door was open now. His heart dropped, his eyes staring at the door. The last time he had been that scared was when he was a kid.

Looking under the bed with a flashlight before going to bed, making a leap just to make sure the monsters under the bed couldn't grab him. Pulling the blankets up to his chin. The dark had always been something really threatening for a child, you couldn't see what was going on. Closets, especially if mom forgot to close it before sending you to bed, could frightening you to death. The waving curtains for a open window, a door screeching in the wind.

But even then he knew that monsters weren't real, or at least he had thought so. Now, it was obvious that they were real and not too far away from him. A screeching door now didn't mean that it was just the wind, it actually meant that it something or someone was coming to torture him.

Tristan got out of bed, though the blankets gave him a false sense of security, he knew that he had a better chance when standing on his legs. His hands curled into fists, trying to brace himself for whatever would come through that door.

Fred and George were the problem at the moment, they continued trying to break into the room, wanting to know who the muggle was. And probably also because they wanted to test whatever they had made on him. Ron had once made the mistake of accepting some candy of his brothers and it had left him throwing up for two hours straight.

The twins had called it a grand success but their initial euphoria had soon been tempered by a furious Molly who had to deal with Ron. The two had been made to do all of Rons chores for the next month and were forbidden to make any new creations for the next three months. When Molly had caught them while they were brewing something that surely wasn't in the potions book, a additional two weeks of chores and the removal of all of their potions brewing material for a whole month was added.

So Arthur had good reasons why he kept his sons away from Tristan, just too dangerous. He probably already had enough bad experiences with magic and Arthur didn't want to add any more problems and trauma's. Tristan would first have to get used to magic around the house in normal life, he would learn that it could also be used for good things and not only bad.

Only then could Arthur gather enough information about normal muggle life and maybe convince the Ministry of Magic to make more human rules in handling muggles. He wasn't hoping for much more since the muggle community had been destroyed and the wizards and witches wanted revenge for the war and casualties. But it was the least he could do, feeling shame and guilt because of what the magical community had done to the muggles. He could at least save one of them.

Ginny apparently was also in the kitchen, helping Molly and at the same time learning how to make sure that the knives wouldn't turn against you while you were busy chopping up the vegetables.

Arthur counted the plates on the tables. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. ''Is Percy visiting?'' he asked, he hadn't seen him yet. But it could be expected, Percy also worked at the Ministry and Arthur knew that he didn't really like muggles and probably would try to talk the idea out of his fathers head. Arthur wasn't looking forward to that discussion with Percy.

Molly looked up confused from the stove. ''What do you mean?'' she said, having to divide her attention between Arthur and the meat in the pan. Arthur pointed at the table. ''Seven plates'' Molly sighed and turned back to the now burning meat. ''Seven plates. You, me, the twins, Ron, Ginny and Tristan'' she said like it was obvious.

Arthur hesitated a moment before replying. ''Honey, I don't think it's wise that Tristan is eating with us already.'' He hoped that she would get it and not push the matter. But that wasn't Molly, she always insisted on the whole family eating together and Tristan was added to the household from this day on. ''What do you mean, he's not eating with us?'' she asked irritated, extinguishing the fire beneath the pan.

''He's still really tired'' Arthur postponed the real reason. ''And he needs to sleep. And ehm… he probably doesn't want to say any magic at all for the next few days'' His voice had gotten softer as he proceeded talking. Molly had whipped around at the last scentence. ''No magic? How do you think I'm going to run this household for the next few days without magic, Arthur Weasley? That's right, it's near to impossible! If he lives in a magical household, he will just have to get used to it''

Before Arthur could respond to that, a loud screaming and things falling on the floor was coming from upstairs. Arthur apparated to Tristans door in just half a second.

It took a while before the door opened, first there was whispering and hushed talking. Tristans chest heaved up and down, not completely ready for what would come through that door. It could be a wizard or witch, a monster or that creepy thing what he had seen earlier today. But the last one had just appeared in this room. A bit worried Tristan looked around to make sure that there weren't any big ears visible in the room.

Then the door was finally opened and three red headed persons sneaked inside, closing the door behind them. ''I told you the muggle was here, otherwise he would haven't been this persistent to keep us away from here'' one said to his exact look alike. Tristan wasn't sure if it was a magical trick or that they really were twins. His face was set in a determined glare.

The copy moved forwards, a grin on his face. ''Nice to meet you, muggle'' he said, while keeping his hand out. Tristan looked suspiciously at the hand, why were they acting so strangely? There was something wrong, that was for sure. The hand was still hanging in the air but Tristan made no attempt to shake it. The ginger slowly lowered his hand.

There was an awkward silence for a moment before the first one started talking again. ''Well, I'm Fred, that's George and that's our little brother Ron. The man you have already met is our father'' Tristan still didn't reply and looked at the three of them, actually wanting them to leave him alone. ''Is he deaf?'' The one that was called George asked Fred softly while leaning towards his brother.

''No, I don't think so. That book of dad we got said that muggles greet each other differently. '' And after whispering that to his brother, Fred did a big step forwards to Tristan, spreading his arms widely. Tristan was already with his back against the wall and now the wizard closed in on him rapidly, blocking every way out with his arms. Tristan balled his fists and hit him square in the face.

The results were instant, Fred backed off, clutching his bleeding nose and making muffled sounds. His twin had screamed in anger about what Tristan had done and the third one also didn't seem to happy. ''I wah jus' t'ying to we nice'' Fred said in pain.

It seemed like the other two were about to turn against Tristan but before that could happen, a flash and the man was back and he was furious!


End file.
